He got down on hands and knees and crept into the tunnel. After about six feet, he stopped and found he could turn around without too much trouble. "Peer?" he called back. "Yes?" said Peer. "How can I see anything here," Channok demanded peevishly, "when it's all dark?" "Well, you're in far enough now," said Peer, who had sat down before the entrance of the tunnel and was looking in after him. "And now I've got to ask you to do something! You know how I always promptly carry out any orders you give me, like getting in my full sleep-period and all?" she added anxiously. "No, you do not!" Channok stated flatly, resting on his elbows. "Half the time I practically have to drag you to the cabin. Anyway, what's that got to do with--" "It's like this," Peer said desperately. She glanced up for a moment, as if she had caught sight of something in the dim red sky overhead. "You've got to stay in there a while, Channy!" "Eh?" said Channok. "When those ghouls pop out of sight in daytime like that, it's because there's a ship or something coming." "Peer, are you crazy? A ship! Who--I'm coming right out!" "Stay there, Channy! It's hanging over the _Asteroid_ right now. A big lifeboat with its guns out--it must be those men from the _Ra-Twelve_! They must have had a tracer of some sort on her!" "Then get in here quick, Peer!" Channok choked, hauling out one of the Reapers. "You know good and well that bunch would kill a woman as soon as a man!" "They've already seen me--I wanted them to," Peer informed him. She was talking out of the side of her mouth, looking straight ahead of her, away from the cave. "I'm not going to be a woman. I'm going to be a dumb little girl, ordinary size. I can pull that one off any time!" "But--" "They'll want to ask questions. I think I can get them to send that lifeboat away. We can't fight that, Channy; it's a regular armed launch! Santis says you can always get the other side to split its forces, if you're smart about it." "But how--" "And then, when I yell 'Here we go!' then you pop out. That'll be the right moment--" She stood up suddenly. "We can't talk any more! They're getting close--" She vanished with that from before the mouth of the burrow. "Hold on there!" a voice yelled in the distance a few seconds later, as Channok came crawling clumsily up the glassy floor of the tunnel, hampered by the Reaper he still clutched in one hand. It seemed to come from up in the air, and it was using the Empire's universal dialect. Peer's footsteps stopped abruptly. "Who you people?" her voice screeched in shrill alarm. "You cops? I ain't done nothing!" VI "And just look at those guns she's carrying!" the deeper of the two strange voices commented. "The real stuff, too--a stunner and an Ophto Needle! Better get them from her. If it isn't a baby Flauval!" "I didn't shoot nobody lately!" Peer said, trembly-voiced.